At just 12 days old Tiarna Gray, from Rowlands Gill in Gateshead, is the country's youngest baby awaiting a heart transplant

A massive appeal is being made to save a 12-day-old baby who needs a heart transplant.

Tiny Tiarna Middleton is the youngest baby in the country awaiting a life-saving heart transplant, with medics realising just hours after her birth that she would need a new heart.

Born with an extremely rare condition that means she has a blocked heart valve in the artery going to the lungs, 5lb 8oz Tiarna is being kept alive only by specialist machines.

But as her parents go through hour-after-hour of anguish hoping for an organ to be made available for transplant, brave mum Sharney Gray, 22, from Rowlands Gill in Gateshead, said: “I haven’t even held her, all I’ve been able to do is hold her hand.

“We’ve heard from doctors sometimes they could get two hearts at the same time or she might not get one at all and she might not make it that long. Most babies run out of time before they get a heart.”

Dad Gary Middleton, 25, said: “We’ve just got to hope, that’s all we can do.”

The young couple, who already have son Jamie, two, said they were aware their little girl would be born with heart condition hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS.

She was delivered by caesarian section at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle on May 22 but doctors were unable to predict the extent of the little girl’s problems and soon discovered that she her coronary arteries had failed to form.

She is now surviving on an ECMO machine, which puts oxygen into the blood and pumps it around the body through tubes going into veins in her neck.

However Sharney, of Barkwood Road, said that a heart transplant is the only long term solution.

“We’re in a really difficult position. Babies under two months can’t be organ donors in this country. She could take the heart of a baby up to three months old but it all depends on weight and size. Time is just running out.”

Sharney Gray and partner Gary Middleton with their son Jamie

Dr Richard Kirk, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist and Transplant Physician at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, said she is currently the youngest baby in the country on the transplant list.

While babies younger than Tiarna have been placed on the list in the past, and even in some cases before they have been born, this was a very rare case for all medics working at the Freeman.

He said: “She is on an ECMO machine to keep her alive in the hope that we will get a donor heart transplant for her. It was mentioned to the family about a transplant but we weren’t sure so we didn’t list her when she was in the womb. It’s very unusual to need a transplant so soon after birth.

“She is the smallest baby on the list at the moment. It doesn’t often happen that we have got a tiny baby on the list. She is very small in anyone’s experience, there’s no doubt about it.

“We can never say ‘when’ a heart might become available and it’s very unusual for little hearts to become available to be used. All of our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”

If a heart becomes available the operation will take place at the Freeman. The only other place in the country where surgeons carry out the procedure is at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

The family are now spending all the hours they can at the hospital and are being supported by relatives and friends including Gary’s mum Maud, and Sharney’s mum Debra and grandma Daisy.

Their son Jamie has seen his little sister but the couple said the hospital environment has been stressful for him and he hasn’t been well himself since she was born.

Gary, a freelance courier, said: “He’s managed to hold her hand and give it a kiss and he took a toy dinosaur in for her.”

Sharney said: “I can only clean her eyes, mouth and her hand. It’s very difficult and very complicated everything that’s happened. I was on the organ donor register myself but not many people would ever think to put their kids down as donors. I just hope we can raise some awareness about the organ donor register for babies.”

Jacki Newby, Northern Team Manager for Organ Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “Organ donation saves lives, it is as simple as that. Our thoughts are with baby Tiarna and we hope she gets the heart transplant that she so urgently needs. The sad reality is that for everybody to get the lifesaving transplant they are desperately in need of, more families who are facing the tragic loss of their loved one will need to agree to donation.

“In order to save more lives, we need to ensure that many more people sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. If it is something that you agree with, we would urge you to sign up now and talk to your family about it. You can join the organ donor register online by going to www.organdonation.nhs.uk , ringing 0300 123 23 23 or texting SAVE to 62323.”

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